SILC logo; click to go back to the homepage
Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center
NSF Science of Learning Center
National Science Foundation

Welcome to SILC

Jump to:    Research Showcase    Join our Spatial Network    Help Us Gather Sketches

The Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC) brings together scientists and educators from Temple University, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to pursue the overarching goals of

  • ♦Understanding spatial learning
  • ♦Using this knowledge to develop programs and technologies that will transform educational practice, helping learners to develop the skills required to compete in a global economy.

SILC participants include researchers from cognitive science, psychology, computer science, education, and neuroscience, as well as practicing geoscientists and engineers who are particularly interested in spatial thinking in their fields, and teachers in the CPS.


See monthly highlights of our research and researchers:

Image teaser from February showcaseSILC Showcase graphic(nontransp)Image teaser from March showcase

Invitation to Researchers:

The Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center would like to invite interested researchers currently conducting spatial cognition and learning research to join this open network.
If you would like to be involved, please contact Dr. Sian Beilock, Associate Professor of Psychology at The University of Chicago to request an invitation:   


Want to help scientists help you?
Researchers at the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center (SILC) are gathering a corpus of sketches using CogSketch. CogSketch is the sketch understanding software that we are creating, which is available for free from our web site. It has two purposes. First, we are using it to explore how people reason and learn. Second, we are exploring how to incorporate sketching into education, to improve student learning. By gathering people’s sketches, scientists will be able to do analyses that will help them with both of these missions. If you want to participate, all you have to do is download CogSketch, and indicate your acceptance when you install the software. (If you change your mind, there is a “Phone Home” setting in the software preferences.)


border
SILC logo; click to go back to the homepage

Search the SILC website


SILC NEWS/UPDATES

Today is February 9, 2010

NEW RELEASE:
CogSketch v1.17 (11/8/2009)
(download here)

see SILC in the press

Read our latest updates and incoming news below or for SILC in the press go to our Press Room (click on PRESS ROOM icon above).

2/5/2010
Please, note that we will soon be implementing a database for the Bibliography page. Due to this we are only up-dating the database.

2/5/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Michael Brown.

2/1/2010
Our February Showcase is on-line: Playful Learning: Exploring the Role of Dialogic Inquiry and Exploration in Children's Developing Shape Concepts [Kelly R. Fisher, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Nora Newcombe].

1/27/2010
Read the current Press on SILC-generated research: Female teachers' math anxiety affects girls' math achievement by Sian L. Beilock, Elizabeth A. Gunderson, Gerardo Ramirez and Susan C. Levine.

1/7/2010
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Member: Roy Ruddle.

1/6/2010
The January SILC Showcase is now on-line: Facilitation of spatial skills necessary in performing geologic transformations [Ilyse Resnick, Temple University; Thomas Shipley, Temple University; Cathryn Manduca, Carleton College; and Nora Newcombe, Temple University].

12/21/2009
Updates were made to our CfP/Conferences page and Jobs page.

12/21/2009
Links were fixed under the sketch inquiry, Help Us Gather Sketches, on our homepage. Please, note that if you ever encounter a link that does not work, please send it to the attention of Jenn Stedillie, webmaster for this site:  

12/21/2009
Please, welcome our new Spatial Network Members: Elena Andonova, Kirsten Butcher, Liz Chrastil, Lisa Douglas & Ian Fogarty.

12/02/2009
The December SILC Showcase is now on-line: Spatial categories across languages [Naveen Khetarpal, University of Chicago; Asifa Majid, Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen; Terry Regier, University of California, Berkeley].


Read about past SILC News in our Archive.